Bas Tol Temporarily Out Of Commision

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dberry

Hydrophilic
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Just FYI, Bas Tol replied to my inquiry that he hasn't been diving for about 5 weeks due to back problems (herniated disk?) and will be out of commission for at least another few weeks. In any case, he said the east side has been pretty rough recently, so we'll probably just skip making an east coast adventure next week. Plenty to see on the west side...
 
Ouch... get well quickly
 
Just FYI, Bas Tol replied to my inquiry that he hasn't been diving for about 5 weeks due to back problems (herniated disk?) and will be out of commission for at least another few weeks. In any case, he said the east side has been pretty rough recently, so we'll probably just skip making an east coast adventure next week. Plenty to see on the west side...

I have had Bas take me on a few dives during my trips to Bonaire. His night dives are great. He is an asset to the Bonaire diving experience, and I hope that he's back in the water soon. You can get close to the East side experience without the unguided risks of dangerous entries, exits, and sometimes currents diving the Willemstoren Lighthouse, Cai, and thereabouts.
 
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A little update on this thread...
He is back! :yeahbaby:
Have been back at it again since July. For a while only diving Cai. But now slowly branching out again to all my other favorite east coast dives. Feels great to be 'back'! That was a pretty scary experience!
You can see what I have been up to on YouTube or friend me on Facebook and get almost daily dive reports with video.

BAS Diving Bonaire
Bas Tol | Facebook
 
Sorry you were out of action when I visited in May, but the guys at East Coast Diving treated us pretty well. Looking forward to diving with you next trip to Bonaire.
-Don
 
I had a herniated disc. Apparently the lowest disc had popped and was pinching a few nerves. Had terrible pains going down my left leg. And for a while all I could do was walk/stand up and lie down. But lie down for a while would make everything stiff and very painful getting back up. Sitting down was horrible. When I had to go anywhere I had to shove myself belly down onto the back seat, and fold up my legs so they could shut the door. The only place where I felt good was in the water! Needless to say I did a lot of swimming :) And always brought the gopro along and actually made some pretty nice video's of the happenings on the reef behind the house. "just keep swimming" snorkel video's hahaha. Kept a lot of people waiting for their daily dose of vitamin Sea happy ;-) The other day someone came over to talk to me, said he enjoys the video's so much and brought up the vids about the Green Moray with tumor. He could not believe they were made just swimming!
And when you ask me what happened... I have no idea what caused it. I have had some lower back pain before. But then I knew what caused it... did something stupid, too much shoveling... whatever. But this time... no indication. And had no idea the pain in my leg was coming from a back problem. There was no pain in my back at first...
Seeing chiropractor, doctors and neurologists did not help much. They would not even give me an MRI and told me to go on-line and find some exercises..really!? I did but then came out worse because it was not the right exercises at that particular stage.
For a while I seriously thought I would never see the east coast again!!! In all lost 3 months of diving. And lost about 1-1/2 months going nowhere until I found a physio who would coach me with exercises slowly building me back up. That has worked very well. Progress is slow but steady. I feel like every week I can do more for longer without having to pay a price afterwards. Good thing there is the Cai dive with its easy entry. One dive a day at first. Did 54 consecutive Cai dives before I felt confident enough to go back to more demanding sites. And now I am able to dive two of the more difficult ones in one day again. Had a fully loaded dive schedule this week with all sorts of east side dives and did great! Still feeling good, yesss! :) And next weeks weather looks even better.. mixing it up even more... MMM. Feels good to be out there again.
Also having lots of fun making the video's and dive reports on my youtube channel and facebook. There's some really neat stuff in them and it's nice to see they're enjoyed by so many people around the world. Would like to continue with that a while longer too.
Yes, Don. BECD does a good job. In the time I was not able to dive I sent all my guests to them so they could enjoy a good and safe east side diving experience. But looking forward to take you on one of my dives during your next trip down :)
OK, off to fill tanks, they're all empty :)
Have a great weekend!
Bas
 
I went through a "lite" version of this a while back, complete with MRI and spine surgeon consult. Crawling to the bathroom on all fours sucks golf balls through a garden hose.

The state of the art as of a few years ago was pump up your "core" muscles to take up more of the load and thus lessen the load on the discs. The exercises I was given by the physical therapist were basically, "core stability" exercises adjusted for back pain. You will indeed find them googling for "core stability" and "core performance". A couple of less obvious ones are rope stretches: Beginner's Guide to Active Isolated Stretching -- I've done some of those as well as "fitness ball" stuff.

But, I am lucky to have an easy pool access. Water works very well indeed because you go weightless and the regular load on the back is gone: the disks aren't loaded, those core muscles can relax and you can work them in that state. I just get in the pool and go dolphin kick with a board in swimfins, on my front and back.

And of course I'm careful with what I lift and how, and how often.

Good luck.
 
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